Soldier boy is BETA
I usually keep the Game-related content for Alpha Game, but this intersection of Game and current events simply demands comment:
I've met a number of top military commanders, including three that were members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Such men exude dominance and a palpable sense of command even when they are wearing a t-shirt and shorts while washing the car; you get the impression that they could successfully invade a small South American country with no more than a BB gun, a wrist rocket, and the staff of the local McDonald's restaurant. For all his fruit salad, Petraeus always struck me as being much more akin to Hollywood's notion of a general than an actual fighting man.
What sort of socio-sexual loser sends THOUSANDS of emails to a married woman who has indicated she is done with him?
At some point after Petraeus was sworn in as CIA director on Sept. 6, 2011, the woman broke up with him. However, Petraeus continued to pursue her, sending her thousands of emails over the last several months, raising even more questions about his judgment.It doesn't only raise questions about his judgment, but about his socio-sexual rank as well. Petraeus superficially appears to be a handsome, successful warrior, an obvious Alpha in every way, but in addition to being unimpressed by his military performance since 2001, I've long felt that he carried himself more like a man dressed up like a soldier than a military commander.
I've met a number of top military commanders, including three that were members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Such men exude dominance and a palpable sense of command even when they are wearing a t-shirt and shorts while washing the car; you get the impression that they could successfully invade a small South American country with no more than a BB gun, a wrist rocket, and the staff of the local McDonald's restaurant. For all his fruit salad, Petraeus always struck me as being much more akin to Hollywood's notion of a general than an actual fighting man.
What sort of socio-sexual loser sends THOUSANDS of emails to a married woman who has indicated she is done with him?
Labels: Alpha Game, war
84 Comments:
My theory:
She was a plant assigned to get some dirt on a man being considered (at the time) for a very high position in government. Those in charge always need some dirt on their subordinates to keep absolute control.
Looks like he was ready to spill the beans on the Bengazhi disaster and they threatened to ruin him if he didn't parrot the offical fairy tale.
He just beat them to the punch on spilling the story.
That's a pretty extreme case of oneitis.
Petreus, always considered an academic by the Army guys, at most a synthetic alpha when he had to be.
Sad story though, turns out he is some kind of outta control loser.
Am I the only one who realized how weird Petraeus's neck is?
It makes his head jut forward at a wrong angle. I sat there staring at his photos for a bit. He had the odd necking when he was younger too.
you get the impression that they could successfully invade a small South American country with no more than a BB gun, a wrist rocket, and the staff of the local McDonald's restaurant.
Vox met MacGyver?
I guess you can't blame him if he was truly in love with her, but the impression is more like infatuation, and even a man of 60 can suddenly be subject to all kinds of absurd adolescent upwelling of emotion. Initially you might think that a career military man would be able to quell such things, but after a moment's thought, isn't this exactly the kind of thing that happens to people on a regular basis? And it always seems to take us by surprise. Let this just be a reminder that human beings are human beings.
But personally, Paula Broadwell gives me the creeps. Can't quite put my finger on it.
Looks like he lives up to his nickname "Betrayus".
But personally, Paula Broadwell gives me the creeps. Can't quite put my finger on it.
Photo A: Paula Broadwell
Photo B: Young Frankenstein
Compare. Any questions class?
Jesus Christ was not an alpha, in game terms.
She's an amoral slut that rocked his world while pumping and dumping him to get the material for her book. He's still pining for those five minutes of slut-alpha.
Who among us (back in junior high) did not pursued a gal who lost interest?
But thousands of attempts????
Chump.
"What sort of socio-sexual loser sends THOUSANDS of emails to a married woman who has indicated she is done with him?"
A man doesn't, a teenage boy in highschool does.
I like the Great Martini's response. He lost it.
Mebbe they could both suck the chrome off a trailer hitch?
Hard to believe it was thousands of emails to zero. Curious about the ratio.
"What sort of socio-sexual loser sends THOUSANDS of emails to a married woman who has indicated she is done with him?"
I think of General Wesley Clark.
He's from the same mold as Gen. Colon Power. It would be ironic if he returns to Leavenworth as a prisoner after previously being the commandant.
Wasn't Petraeus the epitome of an ass-kissing REMF? From what I see of his bio, he managed to make it all the way to four stars without ever seeing active duty.
And this is during times when he could easily have seen active duty if he'd wanted it.
GM- But personally, Paula Broadwell gives me the creeps. Can't quite put my finger on it.....
As first posted on another blog, "manjaw's gonna manjaw". Pure wisdom.
"Such men exude dominance and a palpable sense of command even when they are wearing a t-shirt and shorts while washing the car"
Vox,
In recent years, I've found myself surrounded by lower ranking men. With age, I've become annoyed by the lack of balls in these men and would prefer to be around men with more so I can learn from the values, strategies, etc that they use.
However, no matter what organization I find myself in and no matter where I look, I find more of the same. Petraeus seemed to me much as he seemed to you. Too often I've found these type of men in positions of power, and they often can't keep it together.
Would you have any suggestions for finding better company when one desires it? Communicating with you, as silly as I find some of your opinions, has probably been nearly the only fruitful communication I've had in years. No joke.
It doesn't all add up. Even the craziest of the crazy wouldn't likely send thousands of emails if they weren't getting responses.
Who among us (back in junior high) did not pursued a gal who lost interest?
But thousands of attempts????
Chump.
Seriously. That makes omegas look bad.
Wish I could compare the word count to Dante.
I take that back. Wikipedia says "In 2003, Petraeus, then a Major General, saw combat for the first time when he commanded the 101st Airborne Division during V Corps's drive to Baghdad." Apparently the first and only time, and of course he was surrounded by an army of reporters and biographers (yeah, gotta love those biographers). In other words, by the time he sees combat, his position keeps him far from the front lines.
What a moron.
Thousands of emails? Seriously?
Noah B. November 10, 2012 10:27 AM
It doesn't all add up. Even the craziest of the crazy wouldn't likely send thousands of emails if they weren't getting responses.
The general was no quitter!
It seems (if true) the husband was also something less than an Alpha:
My wife is having an affair with a government executive. His role is to manage a project whose progress is seen worldwide as a demonstration of American leadership. (This might seem hyperbolic, but it is not an exaggeration.) I have met with him on several occasions, and he has been gracious. (I doubt if he is aware of my knowledge.) I have watched the affair intensify over the last year, and I have also benefited from his generosity. He is engaged in work that I am passionate about and is absolutely the right person for the job. I strongly feel that exposing the affair will create a major distraction that would adversely impact the success of an important effort. My issue: Should I acknowledge this affair and finally force closure? Should I suffer in silence for the next year or two for a project I feel must succeed? Should I be “true to my heart” and walk away from the entire miserable situation and put the episode behind me? NAME WITHHELD
Via Boing Boing
OT:It seems Vox may get to test his XX vs. XY UFC theories: "Ronda Rousey becomes the first woman in the UFC"
The real question is, with this society we are currently in and its war on men and masculinity, are we ever going to see men that possess those qualities found in those top military commanders you met again?
I know alphas will always be around, but the real worry is if their traits and characteristics will be stamped out in child hood.
Zartan November 10, 2012 10:30 AM
It seems (if true) the husband was also something less than an Alpha:
Funny... a friend of mine who is a military historian just posted a link to that: Question #2 on this page.
Bizarre stuff.
In the spook world it's called a honey trap.
I always had more admiration for McChrystal, anyone that can be a full bird colonel and actively run the more dangerous missions with his teams, runs 4 miles first thing in the morning to take his edge off, and eats one meal a day is about as close as you can get to the T1000. O, and the fact that he and his team can call a spade a spade when it comes to the president and VP doesn't hurt either.
Militarily, I don't agree with some of his strategies, they seemed to focus on nation building, and the indefinite continuation of interference. But he definitely strikes me as very Alpha in his personality.
In reference to Weasley Clark, I believe the term the grunts use is 'perfumed prince' in regards to these beta types of high rankers.
Seems to me VD that you calling this guy a beta is a little too complimentry.
Jesus Christ was not an alpha, in game terms.
maybe the Churchianity Jesus is not an alpha, but the real Jesus is an alpha.
Leader of men, Check.
Leader of woman, Check.
Said and did what He wanted, Check.
Confident and dominant, Check.
Very high social value.
The only alpha quality Jesus doesn't have is sleeping with tons of girls. The reason He didn't sleep with tons of girls wasn't because of any beta/omega traits (fear, approach anxiety, orbiting, friendzoned, etc. etc.), but simply out of choice.
Actually, come to think of it, I think Jesus would better be described as a sigma rather than an alpha.
@Theo
Naw, he was an Alpha, he had all those disciples with him, sigma would've been more of a loaner.
Eh, even the hardass "leader of men" military types have a high tendency to pedestalize women. This is part of all that "manly honor" crap.
Look at the dork's wife:
http://dailycaller.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/david-holly-petraeus-swearing-in-getty1-e1352507671305.jpg
That explains why he chased Broadwell so hard.
Hood- McCrystal voted for Obama, no alpha is he. Not to mention getting his men killed with incredibly insane ROE's. And not allowing your troops beer in-country while he and his acolytes get hammered everywhere they go is not wise leadership. Lastly, those runner/marathon types are narcissistic whiners over-compensating for their lack of success in traditional sports.
Maybe HE didn't send thousands of unwanted emails.
When isn't this about use, destroy, distance and discard? He stood up for himself and his people a couple of weeks ago ... and Presto! he's now resigning as a psudeo-stalker.
Don't feed the troll, idiots. Anyway, it's a categorical error to ask whether Jesus was alpha.
Well, this settles at least half of the incompetence versus evil question.
Joshua Keen sums it all up.
Paula Broadwell has pretty hot arms for a person of crypt-keeper age. And career-wise she did pretty well for some bumpkin from Dakota. I'd see that justifying up to 3 emails.
Thousands of emails? Doesn't sound credible. What does anyone ever know truthfully from the media?
Not really trolling; simply pointing out the hypocrisy inherent in so-called followers of Christ denigrating anyone for game-theoretic status, to say nothing of watching for iniquity.
Apparently the manjaw's husband knew about their affair, and wrote this to an advice column in the NYT back in July:
"My wife is having an affair with a government executive. His role is to manage a project whose progress is seen worldwide as a demonstration of American leadership. (This might seem hyperbolic, but it is not an exaggeration.) I have met with him on several occasions, and he has been gracious. (I doubt if he is aware of my knowledge.) I have watched the affair intensify over the last year, and I have also benefited from his generosity. He is engaged in work that I am passionate about and is absolutely the right person for the job. I strongly feel that exposing the affair will create a major distraction that would adversely impact the success of an important effort. My issue: Should I acknowledge this affair and finally force closure? Should I suffer in silence for the next year or two for a project I feel must succeed? Should I be “true to my heart” and walk away from the entire miserable situation and put the episode behind me? NAME WITHHELD"
I suppose our perspectives are so far removed that I should adopt a different attitude. Here are a couple of problems with your criticism:
Hypocrisy means failing to practice what you preach. I bet not one person taking shots at Petraeus would preach "A person should never criticize another person".
But that's only a semantic problem. To address the logical problem*, it's rather silly to debate whether Jesus-in-meatspace was alpha or not regardless of which definition is assigned to "alpha".
A leader of men? The universe is his rightful property, and he can do as he pleases with the people in it. Categorically different.
A prolific breeder archetype? He created the first man and woman. Categorically different.
*One of the logic problems, anyway.
Addressing the implicit logic:
1. If you criticize Petraeus or anyone else for their SMV, you'd have to similarly criticize Jesus.
2. You can't criticize Jesus.
3. You can't criticize anyone for their SMV.
Now, I pointed out above that criticizing Jesus' SMV makes as much sense as criticizing the SMV of entropy. But there are more problems with this. Not least of which is that I can criticize Jesus. I just don't. He's bigger and smarter.
Vox, did you ever consider joining the military?
Yeesh, talk about feeding trolls. C'mon, I'm rolling. Might as well give me another push.
Also...stealing another man's wife? Fairly alpha. Then again, married women can be pretty easy
Speaking of the military. Today is the U. S. Marine Corps 237th birthday.
Semper Fi to all current, former, and ex members of Uncle Sam's Misguided Children.
Kaz
Hypocrisy means failing to practice what you preach.
No, it's when you don't believe what you preach.
Eh, even the hardass "leader of men" military types have a high tendency to pedestalize women. This is part of all that "manly honor" crap.
Do you have any examples of this other than Petraeus?
TLM- Alpha is a personality trait, it does not confer any transfer of military strategy, moral compass, or political philosophy. Some correlation could be made between the majority of alphas and a certain decision making process and/or belief system.
My OP also said that he was simply more respectable, and much more alpha than Petraeus.
Generally speaking, I would agree with your assertation of runner/ marathon types, but some of his other actions would tend to make me believe that he is a statistical outlier within that group.
I agree with you, and originally said this in my first post, that his strategy... and consequently its effects, were not sound or sustainable.
Just an Alpha personality.
That brings to mind another question though.. How alpha can someone in the military be? At the lowest levels you're commanded by fresh butter bars, who generally garner no respect. At the highest levels, you're commanded by a bunch of elected criminals. Can someone truly harbor the strongest alpha traits when they will always be "subordinate"?
Axe Head,
A legitimate point. I was speaking colloquially of "being what one is not", as it's difficult to argue that a person can "be" something without "doing" something (e.g. a "mathematician" who doesn't do mathematics).
But it's not a purely logical interpretation.
(1: a feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not; especially : the false assumption of an appearance of virtue or religion.)
Not really trolling; simply pointing out the hypocrisy inherent in so-called followers of Christ denigrating anyone for game-theoretic status, to say nothing of watching for iniquity.
Social Gospel 2: Electric Boogaloo
I'm not sure I've sent THOUSANDS of emails to anyone. Maybe my boss, but that's over a couple of years.
By the way Vox, I encourage you to look into these verses:
(1) Jesus commanded everyone who followed him to give to everyone who asked, and never ask for it back (Luke 6:30). When Vox's dad supposedly got his revelation from God, did his god show him this verse, and give unconditionally to the government?
(*) He said that everyone, who could, should make themselves into eunuchs for the Kingdom of God (Matthew 19:12). High sexual value?
(*) He said the meek will inherit the Earth (Matthew 5:5). I'm sure girls are really turned on by that, seeing as the meek physics majors and computer programmers get all the girls and climb up the latter in life, while the athletes, politicians, and business majors are weeping and gnashing their teeth.
And last, but most certainly not least,
(*) He said woe to those who men speak well of, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets (Luke 6:26). If Game helps you be well-regarded by men, then what does that say about those who practice this unique gospel?
Have you seen pictures of his wife?
Paula does have manjaw but his wife looks like chris farley with long
hair.
Wife
Chris Farley
Do you have any examples of this other than Petraeus?
Personal experience. I work with a lot of retired military. We deal with active duty senior officers a lot.
Paula Broadwell has pretty hot arms for a person of crypt-keeper age. And career-wise she did pretty well for some bumpkin from Dakota. I'd see that justifying up to 3 emails.
Yeah.
"hi"
"8 is good"
"who are you again?"
Also...stealing another man's wife? Fairly alpha. Then again, married women can be pretty easy
No kidding. I think I've seen some children's board games that were harder.
The thousands of emails were, if really true, yet another surge
of his which didn't work. (His image re the Iraq surge was contrived. In football terms he took over when his team was trailing 35 to 7 in the fourth quarter, early, and he helped make the final score 52-21.
Ignores the troll who doesn't understand the polemic nature of Ancient Near Eastern proverbial statements.
Ignores the troll who doesn't understand the polemic nature of Ancient Near Eastern proverbial statements.
This is just special pleading. Whenever the Bible advocates something that could be used to dominate and control others, it's meant to be taken literally, but whenever Jesus Christ commands his disciples to do something which requires suffering and sacrifice, it's just conveniently rhetoric? Give me a #^(@1%* break.
You and Vox are nothing more than lawyers. You enjoy placing heavy burdens on people, but won't lift one finger to help anyone else. (Luke 11:46)
Anyway, there are other verses which suggest that Jesus was being quite serious and literal with his request. Jesus told the rich man to give away everything he had if he wanted to be perfect (Matthew 19:21), Jesus judged the wealthy pharisees and the old beggar not by how much they gave, but by how much they held back (Luke 21:3), and most telling of all, the disciples gave away all of their earthly possessions when they began evangelizing (Acts 2:44-45). Why would the apostles do this unless they believed that Jesus was giving a serious command?
Not really trolling; simply pointing out the hypocrisy inherent in so-called followers of Christ denigrating anyone for game-theoretic status, to say nothing of watching for iniquity.
It's not really the status that's the problem, it's the character traits that cause that status to be lower than what might be expected in that position.
Looking forward to the dismantling of Tom O.
Oh and generals are generally politicians of a different kind. Since joining the military I have been amazed at the lack of respect I have for those who are officers. The number of inspiring people I've come across I can probably count on one hand. Considering I grew up with the idea that the military was full of upright people of high caliber I was given an INCREDIBLE wake up call to see that none of that existed. Here I thought I needed to join the military to prove my principles only to learn my principles are far above what the military is about.
@Tom O: Didn't the guy you call Jesus also say, "If you would enter in to Life, keep the Commandments"? Good luck finding a Christian who actually keeps the Commandments. I think appealing to the words of the guy you call Jesus isn't a good strategy for dealing with Christians. Also, to get back on topic, Petraeus is pathetic. There are literally billions of women on the planet. There is absolutely no need to email any of them thousands of times, whether you're chasing them or married to them. That's ridiculous.
Having had a few buddies go through the academies, I've heard similar rants about the caliber of the high school enlistees...
I guess losing every war since WWII makes you an Alpha in the military? Figures.
@p-dawg: Yes. And you're not off the hook if you don't believe in the commandments! Because however you judge others, you will be judged, and however you measure others, will be measured against you. (Matthew 7:2) Ever failed to live up to your own standards? You will be judged for that. Ever made a commitment to someone and broke it? You will be judged for that also. Ever flapped your gums without cause? Every idle word will be accounted for (Matthew 12:36).
Trying to find Christians that live up to God's standards? How about trying to find anyone that lives up to human standards? Of course Jesus recognized this, for he said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." (Matthew 19:26)
I understand this Alpha game stuff, in theory... but if its intrinsic-ness is determined by how many swooning whores one can attract then I will gladly choose the role of the lonely guy in the corner who talks to himself - because we all know the fate of the garden-variety alpha dictators.
Seems to be some interesting things going on
The General's dalliance with Paula Shagwell will gift us with the first Lesbian CIA Director.
"BBC chief quits amid sexual scandal" 11.10.2012
This makes him sound more alpha:
http://academywatch.blogspot.com/
Bye bye Davie
I FREAKING KNEW IT!!!
At least, in general. I was loosely acquainted with one of the members of Gen. Petraeus' personal security team and . . . well, they talk. Not specifically, but the gist was that he was an old goat with a fondness for the ladies.
I got to see him in action. While I was was in Kabul, I sat in a meeting with Gen. Petraeus and forty or so representatives from USAID, USACE, and the embassy. Gen. Petraeus came in, made himself comfortable, and promptly singled out a striking blonde lady (who will go nameless, but she was an "engineer" with the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) down in Kandahar) for a special hey-there-good-to-see-you-again. The woman flushed with obvious pleasure that the rock-star general would remember her from his visit down south several months before. It's good to be the king, I thought ruefully.
Wasn't Petraeus the epitome of an ass-kissing REMF? From what I see of his bio, he managed to make it all the way to four stars without ever seeing active duty.
Petraeus was not a REMF. He was commissioned a 2nd LT. in the infantry, post Vietnam, and worked his way up through a number of infantry units including being the commanding general of the 101st Airborne (Air Assault) division in Iraq. He is airborne qualified and passed Ranger school. He even has been shot through the chest with an M-16 as a result of a training accident that nearly killed him. So although he did not get a purple heart, he took a full on shot with no body armor.
Having said all that, I am shocked that he is not an alpha and that he was so hung up on this chick. I also don't like the fact that he wears every single award possible on his uniform including bullshit foreign courtesy-type awards and US State Department awards. He and too many other Army generals resemble tin-pot dictators with all the shit they wear.
The affair angle is just a chip in the big game that others had on him.
This is about Benghazi and the Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace.
Macgregor (classmate of McCrystal) is the real deal. He basically told the rear flags to shove it (in Gulf War I). In the field, he is in command. Perhaps a modern day Patton. He has some choice words for/about Betrayus.
Macgregor speaks of they, and pressing their agenda.
Seeing as he may still get dragged into the Benghazi investigation I wonder if a remorseful suicide will be forthcoming. Or, if this was just a warning and they have enough real dirt on him to keep him quiet.
As for General's I always kind of wondered about Schwartzkopf myself. Was he a leader's leader or not? I never had the impression he was much of an ass kisser and his leaving the service when he did seemed to basically say, "I'm done with this shit."
-1 apostrophic pluralization
No one seems to have commented on the girlfriend's book title: "All In" seems to be about a quadruple entendre (still counting)
Anonymous: I laughed when I saw the book title in the story, for the same reason.
but if its intrinsic-ness is determined by how many swooning whores one can attract
No, it's not determined by it, there is only an extremely strong correlation. It is really determined by how many women WOULD be willing to have sex with him. As Vox has said, there are some Christian alphas with N=1.
However, for every such alpha, there are probably a hundred deltas and gammas who fancy themselves such an alpha.
Bob Wenzel offers compelling photographic evidence of Patreaus as Beta:
http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2012/11/the-wenzel-picture-digest-version-of.html
Who among us (back in junior high) did not pursued a gal who lost interest?
But thousands of attempts????
Chump.
Me and a hell of a lot of other people.
Anyway, check out Jon Stewart's interview of Paula. This news adds a layer of hilarity. http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-january-25-2012/paula-broadwell
By the way, if you let your wife frequently go running for miles alone with some guy, you're a cosmic idiot.
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